Bandiera della sanitaria

The documents of 1580 from Split mention requirement of the
sanitary services to carry "bandiera della sanitaria" on ships
depending on their destination.

This is probably connected with plagues and would presumably mean that
the ship was sanitary inspected before leaving the port.

I guess that similar provision were usual elsewhere in Europe at the
time (and afterwards, even until today!) however, when was this
practice established and how the flag was looking like? How it was
used?

I seems to remember that "quarantine flag" is supposed to be yellow -
is this the same thing and was the yellow flag usual in 16th century
already?Željko Heimer, 23 November 2006

Flag Quebec, plain yellow, is known as one of the oldest flags among the
International Signal Code flags, but 1580 seems to me to be a bit too far
back. The modern meaning is also that the ship flying it, requests free
pratique and the flag declares the ship to be healthy. I have read
somewhere, however, (unfortunately the original source escapes me) that
plague ships were required to hoist a black flag to indicate that they have
the disease onboard and are therefore under quarantine.Andries Burgers, 23 November 2006

The Quarantine Flag

1. History of the quarantine flag

[This should probably be placed a "generic" page on the FOTW website on
quarantine flags, which would include an index of the specific
quarantine pages found on the FOTW website. The "Quarantine Flags"
page, should be renamed
more specifically. This section should also be dispatched among the
editors of the French, German, British, Danish, and Swedish sections of
the wesbite.]

The history of the quarantine flag was related by Bernard Dulou in
Rose
des Vents #106, 2004. Rose des Vents is the bulletin of the
association ABB (Association Bateaux en Bouteille).

The yellow quarantine flag is universal (Q letter in the international
signal alphabet). Following the establishment of quarantine in the
Mediterranean ports in the 14th century, it seems that there was for
centuries no proper quarantine flag or any other quarantine signal.

The first time and place of hoisting of a quarantine flag is hitherto
unknown. This gap was highlighted in 1975 by Rupp, who was the first in
the German naval literature to write on the quarantine flag. The
oldest known information on the use of signal flags to indicate
quarantine dates back to the 18th century. At the time, signals were
also used to indicate the absence of contagious disease on board. The
oldes known record is to be credited to Henningen, who writes: "Danish
sources give information according to which, during the great plague of
1710-1711, ships placed in quarantine should hoist a white flag."
Hennigen adds that the quarantine signal should be used as the jack
when the ship was in quarantine, as it was the case in 1751 in Cadix for
the Swedish "Prins Carl" on her way to the East Indies. However, this
flag was also hoisted as the jack to indicate that there was no
contagious disease on board, as it was the case in 1799 in Capetown for
the Swedish "Kongen af Danmark" on her way to China. It seems also that the
Danish corvette Galathee hoisted in 1846 in Hawaii harbour a white
flag in order to indicate that the health situation was normal on
board. The very same white flag was then used with two opposite
meanings, either quarantine or absence of disease on board.

An extract of the health report of the port of Marseilles (Health
Office), dated 1730, describes the quarantine rules with details
comparable to modern practice: everything is written, every member of
the health service has its duty well defined, but there is no mention
of a quarantine flag.

All the ships were controlled on the port of the island of Pommègue,
located five miles off Marseilles, where 35 ships could moor. The
contaminated ships were sent to the islands of Frioul and Galiane. All
the other ships were allowed to enter the port of Marseilles, provided
they moored again near the St. Nicolas citadel for checking their bill
of health. The small boats plying between the port and the suspect or
quarantined ships flew a red pennant.

In Britain, the quarantine signals were introduced in the 18th
century. Mullet writes that, as from 1 January 1789, every quarantined
ship off the British coast should hoist a specific signal. The daily
signal was a big yellow flag whereas the night signal was a light
placed on top of the mainmast. The non-observance of the rule was fined
200 pounds.

According to Fergusson, the origin of the yellow flag has to be traced
back to the Middle Ages, when the heretics had to wear yellow clothes,
the yellow colour being considered as the symbol of the hell fire, of
betrayal, of jealousy and treachery. This was indeed a negative colour.
The meaning of the "Yellow Admiral", known in the 19th century, is
probably related. A "Yellow Admiral" was an old or supernumerary
Captain who, short before retirement, was appointed Rear Admiral
without ever having hoisted their personal flag on a ship of either the
red, yellow or blue squadron. The name of "Yellow jack" given by the
British seamen to the yellow fever seems to be related, too. During the
great plague epidemics, it was common to mark the houses of the
infected houses with a yellow cross and to force their inhabitants to
wear yellow clothes.

An English Decree dated 1799 prescribes the size of the quarantine flag
as "six breadths of bunting", which means six times the size of an
ordinary flag. The "London Gazette" from 6 April 1805 published a
Decree prescribing in detail the quarantine moorage, limited by yellow
buoys topped with a yellow flag. The Decree from 10 October 1806,
however, prescribed an "eight breadths of bunting yellow and black
flag".

In 1832, the Nautical Magazine published a Decree, similarly
prescribing a flag with yellow and black squares, eight breadths of
bunting in size, to be hoisted by the quarantined ships on the coasts
of Britain. The signal had to be hoisted on top of the mainmast. The
naive lacking the bill of health has to fly on day a big yellow flag
with a black ring or a plain black disc in the middle. This flag was
tow breadths of bunting in size.

In Germany, the oldest record of the use of a quarantine flag is found
in a report by Janssen, the Chief Pilot of the port of Hamburg. For
long, there was no choice between the green and pale yellow colours for
the flag. It was claimed that those two monocolour flag would prevent
confusion with any national ensign. Therefore, the green flag was used
for long in Hamburg as the quarantine flag. In 1856, a Decree lists
also toe yellow flag: "All the ships submitted to a quarantine
inspection are allowed to sail up the river Elbe and to moor under the
quarantine flag. The flag is a green flag, two ells in size, hoisted on
the foremast. The ships not having such a flag shall used a yellow flag
or the national ensign."

In the Health Inspection Decree of the ships of the port of Hamburg
issued in 1883, only the yellow flag is prescribed. The international
use therefore eventually prevailed. Denmark adopted the international
use in 1887 by a Notice published on 20 June, recommending the use of a
yellow flag to the Danish ships.

Today, the Q signal flag is included in the international signal code.
Hoisted alone, it means: "My ship is healthy and I require the free
practice." Indeed, it is mostly used to require the inspection by the
customs authorities, but that use is not strictly the same everywhere.
In Britain, every ship coming from abroad must hoist the Q flag on the
port side and wait for the customers, who are also in charge of
immigration and health control. In theory, the crew shall not be
allowed to land before the completion of the inspection. The procedure
is simpler in France, where only the ships transporting goods to be
declared have to hoist the Q flag.

An illustration of the yellow flag can be seen on the painting "HMS
Hazard flying yellow quarantine flag", by Sir Oswald Walter Brierly
(1817-1894, painting made 20 September 1841), kept in the
National
Maritime Museum, London.

2. Origin of the word "quarantine"

The website of the
Australian
Quarantine and Inspection Service
explains the origin of the word "quarantine" as follows:
"The word quarantine comes from the Italian quaranti giorni, meaning
'40 days'. When bubonic plague swept through Europe in the 14th
century, the government of Venice required ships to anchor away from
the city for 40 days before they could unload passengers or cargo.
The authorities thought 40 days would be enough time for any disease to
be identified and either treated or pass through its normal course. All
ships under quarantine had to fly a yellow flag."

Ivan Sache, 26 November 2006

Responses

History

As I already suggested the ports in Adriatic had regulations
regarding the "bandera della sanitaria" in
16th century as well established practice. The question is, for the
time being how this was looking like, but that is an other issue. I
hope to provide more details on the practice eventually.

I guess that this is at least suspicious and that with the research of
Venetian and other Adriatic (and Mediterranean) ports' documents would
reveal that quarantine flags were in use ever since the concept of the
quarantine was introduced in 14th century.Željko Heimer, 26 November 2006

Origin of the word

The article from Australian Quarantine and Inspection Service
seems to imply that the yellow flag was established
already in 14th century (if you read it giving some leeway), however,
this needed not to be the intention of the writer - he might have just
claimed that the yellow flag is traditional for this purpose nowadays
as quite an old heritage, but not necessarily from Venetians.Željko Heimer, 26 November 2006

Quarantine Laws

Australia

Quarantine Act
1908 (Act No. 3 of 1908)

21. Quarantine signals on vessels and installations

(1) The master of a vessel (other than an aircraft) subject to quarantine is guilty of an offence if he or she:

(a) fails to display the quarantine signal on the vessel before it comes within 3 nautical miles of any port or within
500 metres of an Australian installation; and

(b) fails to keep the quarantine signal displayed on the vessel while it enters, or is in, any port or quarantine
station or is at an Australian installation.

Maximum penalty: 50 penalty units.

[...]

(2) The master of an installation subject to quarantine shall:

(a) display the quarantine signal on the installation; and

(b) keep the quarantine signal displayed on the installation until pratique is granted or until the installation
is released from quarantine.

Maximum penalty: 50 penalty units.

23. Signal

The quarantine signal shall be as prescribed and shall be displayed in the prescribed manner.

24. Unauthorised person not to board or approach vessel or installation

(1) An unauthorised person must not:

(a) go on board or alongside any vessel subject to quarantine or on which the quarantine signal is displayed; or

(b) approach within 30 metres of any prescribed signal on a landing place.

Maximum penalty: 50 penalty units.

44. Goods not to be removed

[...]

(3) If a vessel or installation is displaying flags, lights or other signals that clearly indicate that the vessel or
installation is in quarantine:

(a) any unauthorised person who lands or unships goods from the vessel or installation, or moves goods on the vessel
or installation, is presumed, in the absence of evidence to the contrary, to have intended to land or unship the goods,
or to have moved the goods in order to land or unship them, as the case may be; and

(b) any person who receives or has in his or her possession any goods landed or unshipped from the vessel or
installation is presumed, in the absence of evidence to the contrary, to have known that the goods were landed or
unshipped from the vessel or installation.

143. Saving of regulations

Any regulation prescribing a signal for the purposes of paragraph 21(1)(c) of the Quarantine Act 1908 that
was in force immediately before the commencement of this Schedule continues in force as if it prescribed that signal
for the purposes of subsection 21(1A) inserted by item 142.

Australia and New Zealand

Quarantine Regulations, from the Government Gazette, 19 January 1855:

80. The Master of any vessel detained in Quarantine shall cause a yellow flag of not less than six
breadths of bunting to be hoisted at the maintopmast head, which flag shall be kept flying between the
hours of sunrise and sunset, but between the hours of sunset and sunrise a lantern, shall be hoisted
in the same place, and a light shall be kept burning until sunrise, under a penalty not exceeding
Twenty Pounds.

Quarantine Regulations, published in each Provincial Gazette during 1864

4. The master of any vessel arriving from any port in the Australian /colonies or New Zealand which may at any time,
by a notice in the New Zealand Gazette, be duly declared an infected port, and the master of every vessel arriving from
any port whatsoever not within the Australian Colonies or New Zealand, shall on approaching any port in New Zealand
cause the Health Officer's flag (No 8 of Marryat's code) to be hoisted at the mast or mainmast head of the said vessel,
and shall keep the same flying until she has been communicated with by the Harbour Master, Pilot, or other officer of
the port, after which, if the vessel be considered clean, the said flag may be hauled down. If any such vessel shall
call at more than one New Zealand port, the flag herein prescribed shall be hoisted on arrival at each port.

5. Should it be considered necessary by the Harbour Master, Pilot or other officer as aforesaid that such vessel
shall be visited by the Health Officer, the master shall on being directed to do so, cause the vessel to be anchored
in the quarantine ground appointed for the harbour, and shall hoist the quarantine (or yellow) flag as hereinafter
appointed.

[...]

8. The Health Officer shall immediately visit any vessel which has hoisted the yellow flag, and has been brought
up in the quarantine ground, and if he shall find that any sickness of an infectious or contagious nature exists or
shall then recently have existed on board of her, he shall declare the vessel to be in quarantine and shall submit
full information in regard thereto to the Board of Health. But should he be satisfied that the sickness is not of a
contagious nature he may authorise the hauling down of the yellow flag, and the removal of the vessel to the ordinary
mooring ground.

9. The Master of every vessel on quarantine is to hoist at the main a yellow flag of not less than six breadths
of bunting by day, and a white light by night in an ordinary globe lantern, not less than eight inches in diameter,
and to keep the same respectively hoist until released from quarantine. The said lantern at the main to be in addition
to the usual anchor light provided for in the Harbour regulations.

From the early 1870s until 1920, Matiu/Somes Island [in Wellington Harbour] was frequently used as a human quarantine station.
The quarantine facility was erected on the island in 1872, shortly after the immigrant ship England came into Wellington
Harbour flying the yellow quarantine flag. A monument stands on the island to those who lost their lives while confined on
Matiu/Somes.

Ivan Sache, 18 January 2008

Canada

The Canadian rules for the quarantine are prescribed in
Memorandum
D3-5-1, issued on 11 February 1998 in Ottawa by the Canada Border
Service Agency:

15. Where a vessel arrives in Canada flying a yellow quarantine flag
(infectious disease), the customs inspector will not conduct normal
clearance procedures until advised by the appropriate health authority
that it is safe to do so. Pending such notification, the customs
inspector, with the help of the local police authority or the RCMP, as
deemed appropriate, will endeavour to ensure that the vessel is
maintained in a sterile condition pending cancellation of the health
alert by the competent health authority.

Quarantine Regulations [C.R.C., c. 1368, Section 15]

Quarantine Regulations Evidence of Immunization Maritime Traffic

15. (1) Every person in charge of a vessel who has received
instructions under paragraph 13(b) shall, on approaching a port,
display at the fore, as a quarantine signal, a yellow flag by day and a
red light over a white light by night, in such a manner that the signal
may be readily seen.
(2) No person shall remove a signal displayed pursuant to subsection
(1) until the vessel has been granted clearance by a quarantine
officer."

The use of the quarantine flag in Canada is ancient. Quoting Ian
Cameron, "Sergey Tolstoy and The Doukhobors: The Halifax Quarantine",
Canadian
Medical Association Journal 174: 11 (2006):
"Jan. 27, 1899 - The ship arrives in Halifax Harbour and hoists the
yellow quarantine flag from its mainmast, a signal that a quarantine
inspection is required."Ivan Sache, 18 January 2008

Cocos (Keeling) Islands

The use of the quarantine flag in the Cocos (Keeling) Islands is described as follows:

Cocos Keeling Clearance Formalities

Incoming vessels must fly the Q flag and anchor in the so called inner lagoon
behind Direction Island, close to the yellow quarantine buoys.

No one on board should leave the vessel nor should there be any contact with anyone
until clearance is completed. Neither the quarantine buoys nor any other buoys at Direction
Island are suitable for yachts, which should use their own anchors.

Ivan Sache, 7 January 2007

Philippines

The use of the yellow quarantine flag in the Philippines is prescribed in
Administrative Order No. 118-C
(s. 1992), (aka Revised Quarantine Rules and Regulations), as follows:

A. General Sanitation Requirements for Port of Entry

1. Inspection of Vessels

[...]

d. Requirements for Vessels to be Inspected

Any vessel subject to quarantine inspection shall be considered in
quarantine until given a pratique. Such vessel shall fly a yellow
flag at its foremast, drop its anchor at the designated quarantine
anchorage, put down its accommodation ladder, wait for the Quarantine
Medical Officer and give the conveyance a proper shelter or lee in
stormy weather while he is boarding and leaving the vessel. The
Quarantine Medical Officer has the authority to delay quarantine
inspection of a vessel until the above conditions are complied with.

[...]

3. Detention of Vessel in Quarantine

[...]

b. Requirements of Vessel in Detention

No direct contact shall be allowed between any person in the vessel
in quarantine and any person from the outside. Such vessel shall fly
the yellow flag while under detention in quarantine.

Ivan Sache, 7 January 2007

United States: San Diego

The use of the quarantine flag is prescribed in Ordinance no. 193 of the City
of San Diego, approved on 20 February 1888 as An ordinance concerning the
public health of the City of San Diego, California, as follows:

[...]

Sec. 8. Every pilot who conducts into the port of San Diego any vessel subject to
quarantine, or examination by the Quarantine office, must—

[...]

Fifth—If the vessel is subject to quarantine, by reason of infection, place at the
mast-head a small yellow flag.

[...]

Sec. 34. Whenever a case of small-pox, varioloid or cholera is reported to the
Health Officer it shall be his duty to immediately visit the premises where the person
so affected resides or may be stopping, and the said Health Officer, upon the personal
inspection of himself, shall immediately cause to be erected a yellow or quarantine flag
in a conspicuous place on said premises, or to post upon the doorway of houses infected
with small-pox, varioloid or cholera, a placard setting forth the fact, the same to
remain during the continuance of the disease on said premises.

Sec. 35. No person shall remove a yellow or quarantine flag or placard any building
where the said flag or placard shall have been placed by the Health Officer, without the
permission of the said Health Officer.

Ivan Sache, 7 January 2007

Vanuatu

Here are the flag-related paragraphs of the Vanuatu Quarantine Act:

Chapter 1

Quarantine

[...]

Quarantine Signals

7. To make herself known every vessel shall on arriving within a
distance of 3 miles of the coast exhibit a yellow flag at the fore by
day and a globular red light by night until such time as pratique shall
have been given.

Vessels showing Quarantine signals to be considered in Quarantine

8. Every vessel exhibiting a yellow flag or a red light as described in
section 7 shall be considered as in quarantine as hereinafter defined,
and during such state of quarantine shall have no communication except
by signal with the shore or with any boat or vessel save that of the
health officer, whose boats shall when bringing a health officer on
board bear a yellow flag by day and a red light by night.

Unlawful for other Boats to Exhibit Quarantine Signals

9. It shall be unlawful for any other boats to exhibit quarantine
signals within the waters of Vanuatu.

[...]

Signs of Quarantine Stations and Ships

32. (1) when any place set apart and notified as a quarantine station
is used as such a yellow flag shall be kept constantly flying at some
conspicuous place in such station from sunrise to sunset and from
sunset to sunrise shall exhibit a green light and the display of such
flag or such light shall be deemed sufficient notice that such station
and the land or sea surrounding it to the distance of 100 metres are in
quarantine.

(2) Any vessel while in quarantine shall exhibit a yellow flag at the
fore by day and a globular red light by night.